2021 – Sandhya Kajeepeta
Sandhya Kajeepeta is a PhD candidate in epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Her research focuses on the public health consequences of criminalization and incarceration, and the impacts of criminal legal responses to violence. She also works as a research associate at the Vera Institute of Justice, focusing on jail decarceration efforts in local jurisdictions. Prior to joining the Vera Institute, Sandhya served as the Director of Research and Evaluation at the NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence where she led the city’s research agenda for gender-based violence prevention. She holds an MS in epidemiology from Harvard University and a BS in mathematics from the University of Michigan.
2020 – Elizabeth Clausing
Elizabeth Clausing is a doctoral candidate in anthropology , having received in BS and BA in Honors Integrative Biology and Anthropology at the University of Illinois.
Elizabeth Clausing is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego working in Dr. Amy Non’s Genetic Anthropology Lab. She received a BS and BA in Honors Integrative Biology and Anthropology at the University of Illinois. Her dissertation examines how subjective measures of stress (psychosocial stress) associates with objective measures of stress (epigenetic aging, DNA methylation, and hair cortisol). She is particularly interested in how stress can impact the body through epigenetic inheritance via DNA methylation in mothers and children. She is also interested in how early childhood experiences (e.g., low socioeconomic status, childhood adversity) can affect health in adulthood. Read more
2019 – Iliya Gutin
Iliya Gutin is a doctoral candidate in sociology and predoctoral trainee at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, having received his BA in Sociology at the University of Chicago and then worked at the NORC research organization as a research analyst. His current work focuses on the conceptualization, definition, and measurement of health, illness, and disease in medical and social research, and how these decisions influence what it means to be “healthy” in a highly-dynamic and stratified society. Read more